Half-hags
Half-Hags are tiny, poisonous bird-like creatures that live in the feathers of hagsfiends. Their beaks are said to drip a kind of poison that hagsfiends themselves are immune to, and it is used to kill the mites that live in hagsfiends' feathers. The half-hags feed on these mites and are therefore depend on the hagsfiends for their sustenance. If a hagsfiend is depressed or simply feeling too many negative emotions, the half-hags will not grow strong and won't become good trackers. Tracking is their most useful function, as they have a very good sense of smell that can follow a scent for miles, and a natural ability to sense stirrings in the air that tell them an owl had been there. Despite their good tracking, half-hags also possess woeful eyesight, which some say is because they are part bat. Like hagsfiends, half-hags cannot survive if they become wet with saltwater, but not because of lack of oil in their feathers, but because their poison, when mixed with salt, freezes them to death. History The First Collier They are mentioned briefly when the hagsfiend Penryck is making his way through the Ice Cliff Palace, and Grank must hide from him, only managing to not be seen because of the half-hags' poor eyesight. The Coming of Hoole Ullryck's half-hags are used to track Pleek and Ygryk as they carry out their plan to capture Siv and Hoole. Ygryk also uses her half-hags in tracking Siv's irregular flight patterns. Later, Ygryk casts her half-hags out to attack Hoole, and they prick him with poison causing him to go yeep. Before Ygryk could pluck out one of Hoole's eyes for her spell, Siv, Grank, and Theo come in to rescue him. Grank gives a mysterious command to the half-hags, and they plummet into the ocean. Their bodies end up floating in the cove, contaminating the water with their poison and killing the nearby fish. To Be a King At the beginning of the book, Ygryk is recovering, waiting for her half-hags to begin reproducing again. Due to her frustration and negative emotions, Kreeth reprimands her, saying that her half-hags will not grow in correctly. Later, as Lutta grows older, she gains her own half-hags, and begins using them on tracking missions. Her half-hags discover the scent of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree and find out about Emerilla's disappearance, which allows for her to find it later for her disguise mission. Eventually, on the battle field, half-hags were about to be used in battle, but the Dire wolves use their green eyes to reverse-fyngrot them, making them unable to even leave the hagsfiends' feathers. As the battle goes on though, half-hags are able to be released, and Lord Rathnik is killed by a hagsfiend and their half-hags, who feast on his flesh. When Lutta is slain, her half-hags begin to die, floating in the pool of her blood. Half-hags Language The half-hags can communicate with other half-hags through a strange language that only they understand. In the books there are a few phases spoken towards the half-hags: "Meebla yeben yip." — ''Ygryk to her half-hags, The Coming of Hoole. This appears to be a command to attack the enemy. "''H'blen b'shrieek micht garnish schmoot." ''— ''Grank to Ygryk's half-hags in The Coming of Hoole. It is unknown what it specifically translates to, but when Grank uttered the words, the half-hags went yeep, plummeting into the sea. How Grank learned this is unknown. Trivia * Half-hags are referred to as "parasites" multiple times within the series, but this is not true. They better fit the description of "symbiotic," due to the nature of them relying on hagsfiends for sustenance, and hagsfiends relying on them in return for feather maintenance, tracking, and poisoning enemies. Category:Hagsfiends Category:The Coming of Hoole characters Category:The First Collier characters Category:Species